Pagers exploded across Lebanon in September. Retired Mossad agents, key to the operation, tell 60 Minutes Israel’s plot started years ago with getting Hezbollah terrorists to buy walkie-talkies.
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WATCH:
In a recent “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday evening, two retired senior Mossad agents disclosed new information regarding a September operation in which thousands of Hezbollah walkie-talkies and pagers were detonated. The operation, which took years to plan, involved turning everyday equipment used by Hezbollah into weapons. One of the agents, identified as Michael, explained, “The walkie-talkie was a weapon, just like a bullet or a missile or a mortar,” speaking anonymously to correspondent Lesley Stahl.
Mossad began developing the explosive walkie-talkies over a decade ago. Manufactured at a Mossad facility in Israel, these devices contained batteries equipped with explosive mechanisms. Designed to be discreet, they could easily fit into the chest pockets of tactical vests. Through shell companies posing as legitimate suppliers, Mossad covertly sold these devices to Hezbollah. Michael revealed that Hezbollah unknowingly purchased over 16,000 of the devices, which were used against them in the attack on September 18. “They got a good price,” Michael added, noting that the pricing was carefully calculated to avoid suspicion.
In 2022, Mossad shifted its attention to pagers—devices Hezbollah terrorists carried at all times. Former Mossad agent Gabriel, who also spoke anonymously to “60 Minutes,” shared that the agency discovered Hezbollah was sourcing pagers from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company. Mossad seized this opportunity to create booby-trapped pagers designed to harm Hezbollah targets discreetly.
These pagers were larger than usual models to house explosive devices. Extensive testing was done to ensure that the pagers would harm only the intended targets while minimizing collateral damage to others. Gabriel emphasized, “We test everything, triple, double, multiple times in order to make sure there is minimum damage.”
Although Mossad Director David Barnea initially questioned the larger size of the pagers, Gabriel managed to persuade him and other officials of their effectiveness. To further increase the appeal, Mossad created fake ads and online reviews promoting the pagers as durable, dustproof, waterproof, and long-lasting—qualities that made them especially enticing to Hezbollah members. By September 2024, Hezbollah had unknowingly distributed around 5,000 of these booby-trapped pagers.
On September 17, Mossad activated the pagers, setting off explosions that caused widespread chaos and left thousands of Hezbollah terrorists injured. Michael recalled, “A day after the pagers exploded, people were afraid to turn on the air conditioners in Lebanon because they were afraid that they would explode.”
The next day, Mossad triggered the walkie-talkies, many of which exploded during funerals for those killed by the pager explosions. Gabriel clarified, “The aim of the walkie-talkie and pager plot wasn’t to kill people. If he’s just dead, so he’s dead. But if he [is] wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and effort. And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’”
The psychological and logistical impact on Hezbollah was profound. Two days after the explosions, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech that Gabriel described as a reflection of defeat. “If you look at his eyes, he was defeated. He already lost the war. And his soldiers looked at him during that speech. And they saw a broken leader. I don’t know if you know that Nasrallah, when we operate the beeper operation, just next to him in the bunker, several people had a beeper receiving the message. And in his own eyes, he saw them collapsing,” Gabriel recounted.
These attacks paved the way for intensified Israeli airstrikes, which eventually led to the elimination of Nasrallah. “This was the tipping point of the war,” Gabriel concluded.
{Matzav.com}
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